General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWould it make any difference if we stayed in Afghanistan another hundred years?
I feel like it would not.
Has our presence there helped in any long term way?
patphil
(6,033 posts)uponit7771
(90,225 posts)... difference but we don't want a heavy footprint and aren't committed to a society that wasn't pluralistic from the beginning.
Renew Deal
(81,801 posts)But given enough time they would successfully rebel.
uponit7771
(90,225 posts)... have regional support for pluralism but they'd change no doubt.
We would have to have a heavy foot print and replace their governing structure, like Japan ... that was a couple of generations before we reduced our footprint.
elleng
(130,151 posts)No.
sarisataka
(18,220 posts)A military operation with no purpose is a waste of time.
We started with a purpose, bin Laden, but soon forgot about him. For the last 15 years we have had no real reason to be in Afghanistan, the mission never evolved into an achievable goal.
Iraq was too big of a distraction and an unnecessary one at that.
zuul
(14,615 posts)Mission accomplished!
sarisataka
(18,220 posts)To give the MIC a steady income stream. Afghanistan didn't really consume enough equipment or require hi-tech items to really enrich anyone.
Now if we "gift" the Afghan army a bunch of equipment rather than remove it- that will be a windfall.
SCantiGOP
(13,856 posts)The same as it will be if we leave in 5 years, 20 years or 100 years.
We have broken it, and all we can do is leave and let the people who live there sort it out.
Devil Child
(2,728 posts)We just stomped around its broken remains for 20 years.
dawg day
(7,947 posts)Definitely great success stories for US occupation.
However... neither are in an active war and haven't been for decades.
Hekate
(90,191 posts)paleotn
(17,781 posts)ansible
(1,718 posts)Only to abandon them to the Taliban. Something to think about.
Devil Child
(2,728 posts)doc03
(35,148 posts)person in Afganistan. I bet it is in the hundreds of thousands.
drray23
(7,587 posts)depending on whose estimate you read and what they put in it. There are 38 millions afghans. So, 4 trillions over 38 millions is a bit over $100, 000 . So somewhere between 50 and 100k .
doc03
(35,148 posts)or provide health care for every American.
sarisataka
(18,220 posts)Based on direct expenses of the war ($815B or so) and a population of Afghanistan rounded up to 40M.
If we use the higher number including indirect and ancillary costs of $2.26T, the per person amount goes up to about $56.5k
None of these dollar are including the value of lives lost on both sides.
sarisataka
(18,220 posts)The math is more than I want to figure out so I cheated.
According to the DoD comptroller report from March 2019, Afghanistan cost each US taxpayer $3,714 for the direct costs. At that time it was $737M up to FY 2018, so each of us have now spent about $4,000 or so.
tirebiter
(2,520 posts)In fact, allowing Afghanistan to become a state or not would be the subject of argument.
Autumn
(44,762 posts)Volaris
(10,260 posts)Yes, wed stay. We would act as an occupying police force, AND we would spend the money to turn it into a first world democratic nation state, province by province, and SYSTEMATICALLY we would turn over local governments to self rule under a national govt that, a piece at a time, we would have less and less control over.
It would take, MOST of that hundred years, at a cost of AT LEAST 100 million a year (and thats IF we did it correctly).
I believe it COULD be done. We are NOT willing to spend the resources needed to do it.
dsc
(52,130 posts)and they are willing to do so as well. The fact is Japan, Germany, and South Korea are success stories.
multigraincracker
(32,531 posts)They need a boat anchor.
PortTack
(32,606 posts)But, we have given them support, training, millions of $ in equipment, if they wanted to become a fighting force to defeat the taliban would that have not happened by now?
Its probably not that simple, we didnt do the right thing in the first place..so